Good Day, Sunshine Chalkboard and Tips for Chalk Art

If you follow me on my Instagram design account, you’ve seen this chalkboard, but I haven’t shared on the blog. And since summer is quickly coming to an end, I thought I’d share.

I’ve worked on my hand lettering (not as much as I could, but with two almost-four-year-olds, time is limited, y’all!). I think because of that, this is one of my favorite chalkboards I’ve done.

Everyone has their own way of hand lettering, and drawing chalk art. A couple of tips that might help (although I am NOT a professional by any stretch) if you have trouble with it:

Use Chalk Pens Instead of Chalk. It’s much easier to draw with a pen, and they come in a variety of colors. My favorite chalk pens are pictured below. The jumbo one (found here), is great for drawing large pictures or large, flourishing letters. The skinny one (found here), is great for smaller areas, or for drawing fine lines and thin letters. If you prefer the look of chalk, you can always trace over the pen lines with chalk.

2. Check out Hand Lettering Tutorials Online. I’ve watched several tutorials on YouTube, and you can also find videos on Instagram. There’s tons of people you can follow that upload tutorials letter by letter of the alphabet. You can watch them and draw along with them until you get the hang of it.

3. Think of Each Letter as a “Drawing”. When I started doing this, it made the whole process so much easier! You aren’t “writing”, you are drawing each individual letter. So forget about your handwriting; whether it’s good or bad doesn’t really matter.

4. Gain Inspiration from Others. I’m not saying copy (’cause that’s not cool unless you totally give credit to the other person), but be inspired by others, then develop your own version of something. After all, there’s really nothing new under the sun, but we can all put our own twist on an idea.

I’m pretty sure I’ll be sad to wash this chalkboard off, but I’m really looking forward to having something “fall-ish” on it! I can’t believe my favorite time of year is just around the corner!